Ringing in 60… S.I.X.T.Y. !!!

In many ways it doesn’t seem real, yet my body reminds me daily that it is! Starting today I’m going to start making some changes to see if I can’t mitigate that or I’ll never make it to 70.

The Schmenkmans came for a visit for the week of my birthday which made it extra special.

My birthday meal was FONDUE!

Oh my word, the Schmenkmans know how to do it right!

We had to do the desert fondue a different day because we were so full.

Scrumtrulesent!

The two Mrs. Schmenkmans did our usual hair cutting, shopping bonanzas and buffets while the Misters spent their time golfing and fishin. They even caught enough for a fish taco meal.

Again the Schmenkmans worked their magic

I kind of feel like a crappy hostess because they did most of the cooking if we didn’t eat out. Those two work together in the kitchen like a well oiled machine!

But I did make breakfasts and a nice pork roast one night!

We had a great time together playing cards, shopping, fishing, golfing, but mostly EATING!

Thank you God for blessing us with such great friends.

And thank you friends for making the trip down!

And now I begin atoning for all that delicious but not very healthy food!

SIGH

Catching Up… Kinda

My oh my, that summer just flew right on by didn’t it? I don’t even know where to begin to catch up.

Let’s see…

On Easter Sunday I released Punky and Nugget, my last two beavers.

Something inside me broke that day.

I made the decision to give up doing wildlife rehab. Broken heart aside, there were several other factors that were involved in that decision. It wasn’t an easy one and frankly I’ve been feeling pretty depressed and guilty about it.  Maybe someday I’ll do it again, who knows?

Without the responsibility of raising babies I threw myself into gardening again wanting to grow a lot more food. I had planned on doing a bunch of canning and got restocked on mason jars and supplies. But alas, the veggie garden was mostly a failure.

I started seeds in the greenhouse and had a very poor germination rate. The seeds that did germinate were very slow to grow. The cucumbers and squashes had almost all male flowers so I got very little harvest.  The tomatoes produced very little fruit as well although the cherry tomatoes did ok. Not like in previous years though. The radishes, carrots and turnips grew alot of greenery but did not develop at all underground. It was pitiful!

I DID however get a great crop of green beans! This photo is when they were just getting started.

They filled in to make a solid wall on that trellis and we’ve got plenty of beans put up for the winter!

A mystery squash hybrid of some kind grew underneath my birdfeeder and that plant gave me several nice squash.

I bought myself a soil tester and will try again next year.

The perennial and flower gardens did well overall. The pollinator garden was especially pretty.

Finishing up with some sad news, we lost our Little Miss Poppet in August at the ripe old age of 20 years.

She was our oldest and sweetest Sassy, beloved by everyone that met her! We miss her special loves and wobbly walk abouts. Our house just isn’t quite the same without her.

Thanks for catching up with me, hopefully I’ll do better with the blob posts, I’m going to give it a shot anyway.

Mousie’s Big Bad Horrible Day

Hello there! It’s been awhile!

Too much to catch up on so we’ll just talk about Mouse.

Mouse, our front porch feral, and I have been slowly making friends. Recently, after over a YEAR of trying he’s even allowed me to slowly walk up and pet him. I knew that the time was coming that I’d be able to grab him in order to take him into the vet for a neuter and rabies vaccination. But any sudden moves on my part would still either have him taking a swipe at me or him running off.

Admittedly I’ve been dragging my feet on catching him and getting things taken care of, but yesterday morning fate took things out of my hands.

When I got up in the morning he was nowhere to be found which wasn’t really unusual, sometimes he’d disappear for days at a time. But he showed up around lunchtime not quite acting himself. When I went out to check on him I noticed a bit of blood on his left front paw and he didn’t seem to want to move at all. Upon a closer look I could see that the paw was very swollen and I noticed that his back left paw also looked swollen and bloody. 

I got my phone and snuck over to see if I could take a photo of the paw as he was laying on his side. What it showed was that he needed to get to the vet asap!

Thankfully my local vet’s office was able to squeeze him in that afternoon and I was able to catch him in my wildlife net without much struggle at all.

I had no idea how he would react to being handled but I was shocked and proud of how well he behaved at the vet’s. He only hissed a little bit when they took him out of the crate to sedate him. That’s when I knew he was REALLY hurting.

The vet offered to go ahead and neuter him since he was already under sedation to have his paws cleaned and sewn up. What a blessing that was!

Less than an hour later they brought him back and told me that his paw was severely lacerated and he had punctures clear through the top on the front paw. His back paw had a broken toe with a nail that needed amputation and punctures.

But the saddest sight was his poor little nugget sacs!

He was mighty proud of his ASSets before all of this!

He is currently being housed downstairs in the ‘beaver room’ while he recovers. As you can see he still doesn’t feel very well, but he is being a VERY good patient so far! I suspect that may change as he starts feeling better, but I hope not.

Poor Mousie. I don’t know what got ahold of him to do that much damage but I’m glad he got away. Hopefully the lack of testosterone and this horrible experience will make him want to keep himself on the front porch from now on and not go wandering looking for girls or trouble!

First Blooms in 2022

Ahhhhhhhh… the harbingers of spring!

I’m so ready for the sunshine and warmer temps, but I know that we’ve got to get through March and April first.

These beauties are just reminding us that better days are ahead!

Busy Busy

Mr. C. and I have been super busy in the yard the past couple of weeks. Thankfully the weather has been perfect for yardwork!

We decided to cut down the largest tree on our property.

It broke my heart, but this old wild cherry tree had become a real liability. It had developed a major split at one of the main branches and was becoming a danger.

This was way to big of a job for us to handle so we called in the big boys to take care of it.

Turns out that the split went way further down into the tree than we thought!

Such a sad sight.

While they were here we had them take down an ash tree that was succumbing to the dreaded ash borer.

We saved some money by just having them take the trees down and we cleaned up. That was a LOT of clean-up work! We’ve taken several trailer loads of brush to the dump.

The only bright side of the situation was that we replenished our woodpile.

As you can see we still have a lot more splitting to do!

Next big job… MULCH!

 

So Not Ready

I got the call this morning, the one I knew would be coming but that I was selfishly(?) praying never would.

I felt selfish because you told me in no uncertain terms that life wasn’t worth living in the shape you were in.

I told you that you sounded just like mom.

You told me not to be sad and not to cry when it happened, that you were ready.

Problem is, I SO wasn’t ready, so I’m sorry big brother… I’m really, REALLY sad. And yes, I’m crying.

I was planning on calling you last weekend, I’m so damn mad that I didn’t.

I wanted to tell you how much I love you.

I wanted to tell you that no matter how much of a grumpy act you put on we ALL knew that you had heart a heart full of love, and that you were endlessly generous with your time and your skills and your advice. You never fooled anyone.

I cherish the beautiful bench you made for me. I especially cherish the $300.00 coop you made for my $3.00 chicken when you were here visiting. I promise you that I think of you and smile every time I look at it.

Thank you for being a great big brother.

I will miss you every day.

Goodbye for now, please give mom and dad a hug from me.

I’ll see you all when I get there.

Photo Ark

Mr C. and I made an impromptu decision to go to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley today

to check out the Joel Sartore Photo Ark Exhibit. We got lucky and it was free admission day!

It was a beautiful day and we walked the trails as well. Although we were disappointed that the gardens were closed for the season.  

Here are a few of my favorite images

If this exhibit comes to your area I highly recommend you go!

Front Porch Shenanigans

The camera I have set up on the front porch managed to capture a little altercation last night.

I’ve set up a wintertime shelter for Mouse and he has claimed the front porch as his domain.

There are other cats in the neighborhood that come around. But there is this tabby that shows up now and then and seems to be making a move to take over. Notice Mouse’s glowing eyes from his house a few nights ago.

But last night, Mouse rose to meet the challenge.

There was a showdown

I think we can tell who prevailed!

A Walk on a Sad Anniversary

Mr C. and I drove over to our neighboring town of Luray today for a change of scenery on our walk.

Sat down and chatted with these lovelies  for a little while.

Saw this striking green water plant growing in the creek that I’m going to try to identify.

Also saw this crabapple tree that was just loaded with fruit. Wish I knew the variety because I’d love to grow it!

And today marks two years since we lost our beautiful Miracle.

I still miss her whinnies every morning when I open the garage door.

I don’t remember if I ever shared the beautiful memorial portrait that my friend Michele painted for me based on that very picture.

I treasure it!

Something is not quite right

All these birds (and all of them didn’t even make it into the picture!)…

And yet there is this

Not even ONE egg for the past few weeks! NOT ONE!!

I cry fowl!

Merry Merry

Working on getting into the Christmas spirit around here.

So far it isn’t working but we’ll keep trying!

Sunday on The Hill

It was another lovely day here on The Hill.

We started off with some keto sheetpan blueberry pancakes… yum!

Then we went for a walk. Came home and did some repairs on the beaver pond filter.

Then we got to work getting the tractor ready for the winter. As usual, Buddy (not our cat) had to insinuate himself right in the middle of our chores.

He makes sure things are done properly!

Feeling Accomplished

I made it though the blob challenge, and did even better than the challenger herself thank you very much!

So that’s an accomplishment, but that’s not why I’m feeling accomplished.

I’ve been holed up in my bedroom the past couple of days cleaning out drawers and closets. Did a lot of purging but could certainly do a LOT more. I came across some stirrup pants that I wore when I still worked at the salon… that would make them about 30 years old! Yikes!

I never knew I had as many socks as I had… holy smokes I packed up at least 50 pair for the donation bag and still have way more than I’ll ever wear.

I still have a few drawers to get though and then I need to purge some shoes and I’ll be finished.

Then I think I’ll move on to the bathroom closet.

I’ve been putting this job off for FAR to long and I’m thankful to be getting some of it done.

Monday

It seems as if my brain doesn’t like to blob on Mondays.

So just enjoy this cute picture from last August

Winter is Here and Channeling Da PaPa

A sure sign that winter has come to The Hill is when I switch out the pretty summer rugs

to the ugly winter rugs

I do that because we keep a fire going in our fireplace all winter and let’s face it, logs, fires and the ash they produce are a dirty mess. I’d like to keep my pretty rugs… pretty.

Every time I lay a fire I’m thankful that my Dad taught me how to do it properly.

My friend Michele was recently telling me that she read somewhere that it’s best to do it exactly opposite to how I was taught, with the logs on the bottom and the kindling and paper on top!

I don’t know, it’s worked just fine all these years I think I’ll stick with Daddy’s method.

George Baily agrees!

Happy Sunday everyone!

A Troublesome Beaver

Of all the beavers I’ve raised none of them were  climbers other than when they were small kits. I never needed to worry about them climbing over the 6 foot tall fences of their enclosure.

They were all such GOOD beavers!

Until….. PUNKY!

During the hot summer days I keep a shade cloth over the enclosure in order to keep them cooler and also keep algae from growing in the pond.

But in the winter we have to take it off because we don’t want to risk snow building up and collapsing it in.

  That was a bit of a worry with the troublesome Punk-A-Do wanting to climb. I don’t REALLY think she would actually go over the top but I just couldn’t risk it.

So I had to come up with a solution. We worked on that most of the day today.

Fat beavers are not GOOD climbers and they are certainly aren’t graceful other than when they are in the water.  I’m confident this will keep her in!

They both seemed to enjoy the sunshine once we took the shade cloth off.

All I can say is I certainly am thankful for the person who came up with the idea for zip ties!

Channeling Da MaMa

Growing up, whenever a meal produced some type of carcass or large bone we would end up having homemade soup soon afterwards.

Turkey and chicken bones always turned into some type of broth based vegetable soup, ham bones were usually split pea or sometimes bean soups. Very little went to waste in our house!

Sometimes it was my job to pick the bones after they were boiled. So it always brings back memories whenever I make homemade soup.

I boiled our turkey carcass this morning and picked the bones clean.

Separating the good meat bits

and the icky bits that the chickens will LOVE!

Nothing goes to waste in this house either!

Made a lovely broth

to which I added some veggies and the good meat bits

Thank you Mom for teaching me how to make soup and to not be wasteful!

It was delicious!! (but Mom’s will always be better)

Happy Thanksgiving 2021

We are especially thankful here on The Hill this year.

So VERY  thankful for Mr.C’s health and recovery.

Thankful for our family, our friends, our home, the  Sassies, the beaves, the chickens, the gardens, every single breath we take.

We are well and truly blessed!! Thank you God for all of Your provision.

I’ll try to remove as many carbs as possible from our feast today. But, I’ll make mashed potatoes for Mr.C. and I might even have a little bit to enjoy with some good decarbed gravy.

The one thing that I just can’t/won’t/don’t want to decarb is stuffing and it is the one thing that I’m willing to use up my weekly allotment of carbs on. I LOVE it! It’s right up there with pumpkin pie as one of my favorite Thanksgiving foods. It makes the whole meal for me. 

I’ll get right back to being ‘good’ after today.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?

Meant to post this earlier today but got busy and forgot.

The stuffing was kinda disappointing, I don’t know if I baked it too long or the recipe didn’t call for enough broth but it was a bit dry.  Nothing some extra gravy couldn’t fix though!

We didn’t starve

The Sassies had a Fancy Feast Thanksgiving too.

Hope you all had a wonderful feast!

Gearing Up For the FEAST

Spent some time preparing for the giving of thanks tomorrow.

Low carb pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce.

Don’t feel sorry for Mr. C, I’ve made these before and you can’t even tell they are low carb!

The cranberry sauce turned out soooooo good!

It’ll just be the two of us. We plan on going for our annual Thanksgiving hike and then coming home to stuff our faces.

What are y’all doing?

Hummmmmmmm

Howdy Folks… all 3 of you that are reading.

It appears as if I’ve run out of things to blob about.

Oh… I harvested my first horse radish root!

It was wonderful in cocktail sauce.

That’s about the extent of the excitement around here.

Maybe I’ll try some in a bloody mary… that should spice things up!